Buyer, Bought by Her Beast novel · Chapter 1 of 16
Chapter 1: The Auction
I paid three hundred and twenty thousand crowns for a man who didn't even look at me.
The hall of the Contract House smelled of wax and wet wool.
Two hundred people with wooden paddles waited in silence for the last lot of the evening.
On the stage, under a glass lantern, stood Sirio.
He was a silver wolf, elite service, the most expensive beast man Altamar had seen in ten years.
He was almost two meters tall, with gray ears pricked up and a thick tail hanging still behind him.
His hands were tied behind his back out of pure tradition, and his yellow eyes were fixed on the back wall.
"Three hundred thousand," said the auctioneer. "Anyone else?"
I raised my paddle.
My sister Brisa, sitting beside me, slowly turned her head.
"Inés, what are you doing?"
"Buying."
"You can't afford that."
"I'm paying with Grandma's necklace. Watch me."
Her smile vanished.
Brisa had spent twenty-three years taking everything I wanted from me, from the rag doll to the childhood dog, and even my fiancé.
That morning at breakfast she'd told me she would buy the wolf at the auction.
I didn't argue. I went and sold the necklace.
"Three hundred ten," she said, and raised her paddle.
"Three hundred twenty," I said.
A murmur ran through the hall.
The auctioneer cleared his throat. Brisa opened her mouth, then closed it again.
"Sold," the hammer announced, "to Miss Valcárcel."
The wolf didn't move. He didn't blink.
They took us to a small stone room, where a bespectacled official placed a ten-page contract in front of me.
I read the whole thing, because I'm a glassmaker's daughter and glassmakers read the fine print.
A beast man in service signs for ten years, and in exchange his clan receives the full sum.
When the contract ends, he's free.
Clause seven interested me more than any other.
"No order from the buyer may touch the body of the contracted. Only he decides who touches him."
"That's the body clause," the official explained, bored. "They all have it."
"If you want a different kind of company, there are relief contracts on the second floor."
"I only want a guardian," I lied.
I signed.
Then came the part I hadn't expected: the buyer's inspection.
It's an old custom: the person who pays must verify with their own hands that the merchandise is sound.
I hated the word merchandise from the moment I heard it.
Sirio entered with his hands already untied and stood in front of me, looking over my head.
"Miss Valcárcel," he said. His voice was deep and calm, with no trace of emotion. "You may inspect what I allow you."
"And what do you allow me?"
"The jaw, the ears, and the hands. Nothing more."
I took a deep breath.
I placed both hands on his face.
His skin was hot, much hotter than any human's, and he had a short silver beard that scraped my palms.
I parted his lips with my thumbs to see his fangs, long and white.
His breathing didn't change, but a muscle in his jaw tensed under my fingers.
I moved up to his ears.
They were soft, with short, silky fur on the inside, and they quivered when I brushed them with my fingertips.
"Sorry," I said, without knowing why.
"There's nothing to forgive."
He was still staring at the wall, but the tip of his right ear tilted toward my hand, a millimeter.
I noticed. He noticed too, because a flush crept up his neck.
I took his hands.
They were enormous, with hard knuckles and palms callused from the grip of a sword.
The official brought a hot wax seal and pressed it into my palm and his, one against the other.
The wax burned for a second.
I felt his hand tighten over mine, barely, and the wolf finally lowered his yellow eyes to my face.
It lasted a heartbeat.
Then he looked back at the wall, as if nothing had happened.
"She's yours now," said the official. "Enjoy him."
We went out into the hallway, me with my palm burning and him behind, exactly two steps away.
I was thinking about what to say to him when I heard rapid heels.
"Inés! Inés, wait!"
Brisa came toward us with her pink dress billowing and a cloud of sweet perfume trailing behind her.
She smelled of flowers and something else, something dark and green.
I stopped to look at her, and that was my mistake.
Because behind me, silently, without anyone ordering it, Sirio's gray tail began to move.
Slowly at first, and then faster and faster.
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